Design of the GameBoy Macro - Lessons Learned from Making 4!

Years ago at work , I found two broken Ds lights in the trash .

Instantly .

My first thought was , could I Frankenstein them together into a working one ?

Somehow .

My mad science venture didn't end in tragedy .

From this beginning .

A beautifully cobbled together DS things have come full circle with this quartet .

Items also made from DS lights designed by and yet not designed by Nintendo .

At the same time , design of things .

33 Game Boy Macro to get here .

We need a bit of history , history that will put this design in context .

2004 according to USA today , Facebook being founded was the most important event of this year who people , well , most importantly for our purposes , this is Nintendo Ds , the replacement of the legendary iconic Game Boy series .

A marked departure .

A bit of an oddity , a gamble on dual screens that turned out to be even more successful than the Game Boy Line .

When millions of devices are in the hands of millions of users , they get tested to the core and weaknesses are always found .

This is especially true for game consoles that easily receive thousands of hours of direct user contact , we grubby oily hands for the DS standing for dual screens .

The screens hinge was the weak point making durable hinges is always difficult in the DS lights case , there are also fragile ribbon cables running up to the speakers and top screen .

The result .

Well , top screens often broke as I enjoy fixing things .

I amassed a bin full of DS lights with screen issues .

One awesome feature of the DS is its compatibility with Gameboy advanced games , which of course require only one screen .

Well , you see where I'm going the Gameboy Macro because it resembled the Game Boy micro , just a bit larger .

There are many guides online for making one of these .

So using my parts , I decided to create as many different Gameboy macros as I could each trying out some different techniques .

I started this learning process with the parts of about five different broken Nintendo Ds lites to make it possible to boot up the device with only a bottom screen .

The secret is to make the DS think it has an upper screen when the user turns the console on as part of its diagnostic checks .

The DS confirms that the upper L CD is drawing current .

If it detects this , it can pass the diagnostic check and boot up .

So we just solder in a 350 ohm resistor between these two points to trick the DS light into thinking it has an upper screen , the added resistance does the trick .

After that , we have two problems to solve .

One , there are no speakers in the bottom half .

So we need to solder one in then find a space for it .

In the case two , the other problem is mostly cosmetic .

We now have this unseemly leftover hinge on the top to solve the latter .

I decided to play with some different methods .

The most simple was just cut sand down and paint , uh amateur spray paint job .

Aside , this seemed to work pretty well .

The color scheme is a lovely silver and light blue and because it is the original face plate , everything just fits together nicely .

I filled the holes with little 3D printed plugs here and on the back , the second involved a little filling with polyester putty sanding and painting .

It's nice overall .

Despite some rough edges , the hole in the left side , I filled with a little grill plug , the orange and blue U VA color scheme .

Wow , beautiful .

Next , I tried using the face plate again this time filling the whole top but ended up with this kind of lumpy gameboy , macro teal and black though , looks beautiful .

Lastly , I tried 3D printing a bunch of different versions .

As you can see , I went through a lot .

Some versions were designed to be cut using AC NC mill , not an inaccurate consumer grade cheap 3D printer , but the printer did a respectable job after some duds , one of which I used for much needed spray painting , practice abomination .

These two designs turned out to be my favorites .

It was really difficult to send out the layers made by the 3D printer .

In this case , I never really got it quite right .

Some deeper grooves were created by problems with the mesh of the 3D model .

I'm not working on some new versions which I'll properly send and fill in .

One thing I learned through the process is just how precisely designed hardware really is small inaccuracies in the 3D models made it really hard to get a good fit between Nintendo made back and the 3D printed front panel .

No matter what model I used , it required a lot of sanding , cutting and modification .

One to get the buttons to fit and feel good and two to get the face plate to fit with the back for the best looking Gameboy Macro .

You could also pick up a face plate from boxy pixel , but at $50.50 dollars , it kind of defeats the purpose of the mod which is taking broken things and making something work at next to no cost anyways , it's time to take a look .

Now at the overall design , the design of a Nintendo console that Nintendo never designed no matter which version , the rounded back plate and slim body make it a joy to hold .

It's a great size as well .

Perfect for throwing into a bag or pocket .

The major upgrades here one , the rechargeable battery and two more important , the bright clear backlit L CD screen is incredible .

The only caveat here is that the full real estate of the DS screen isn't used as the DS screen has a different resolution from the Gameboy advance .

It's truly an impressive little device .

Yeah , there are little quirks mostly from my inexperience with modding , unseemly lumps holes , a sprinkling of jake .

But all the trial and error learning new skills , learning from failure made the project a lot of fun .

In the end .

I have something truly custom wholly my own that cost at most a couple bucks for some paint and tiny resistors .

I also feel like I have a better understanding of the DS hardware and hardware in general .

It's awesome to see how everything was carefully engineered to fit together , make assembly easy and provide a good experience for the user .

Until next time on design of things .